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Seven key themes were identified and are reported below. Subthemes are reported where
appropriate. There were clear links between subthemes in different theme headings, and
between different key themes, and these are discussed.
1. Independence
This issue was mentioned by all respondents, often extensively. Respondents viewed
independence both as a number of physical tasks to be carried out and as a state of mind:
‘whether I'm in a wheelchair or whether I'm walking I'll be fairly independent
because I'm quite an independent minded person, so I shall be able to get on
one way or another.’ (Respondent 2)
1a. Doing things for yourself
All respondents regarded this as being very important, and as a desirable and appropriate way
to behave, but also as in some ways inevitable, even in the face of difficulty:
“Well I have a little motto that I live by and it's pain if you do and pain if you don’t”
(Respondent 4)
1b. Role of others
The role of other people crops up repeatedly in these accounts. With regard to independence,
respondents felt that others could either help or hinder them in being independent (although
often quite inadvertently):
1c. Mobility
“I mean she was a lovely lady but she found it difficult not to keep helping me and
I can remember to this day going rigid when she wanted to take my arm to cross
the road, poor lady yeah, and I have difficulty with anybody doing that.”
(Respondent 1)
“Yeah, I ask people at Sainsbury’s to reach things off the top shelf because I
can't reach them and I think that doesn’t matter that I'm short but I wouldn’t want
to ask anybody to help me to do something because I've got an artificial arm”
(Respondent 6)
As might be expected, mobility was more of an issue for respondents with lower limb
prostheses, and also emerges under the theme of physical adaptation (below). Mobility was a
key to independence, and, for this reason, respondents went to considerable lengths to maintain
it.
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